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Travelling is arguably one of my biggest passions. I consider myself lucky, as I have had the chance to travel, work and live around the world, always with my beautiful lady. Now that we moved back into my hometown, here in Italy, one of the thing I missed the most is just living in a foreign country, learning different lifestyles, different cuisines, new ingredients. I started blogging and participating in Mixology Mondays also for this reason: I wanted to stay in touch with a reality that was different than mine, I wanted to see what other bartenders had to say about cocktails and spirits, because, if there is one thing I learned during my travels, is that mixing ingredients and techniques from different cultures, often produces great results. Now this was almost impossible 100, 150 years ago (even now in Italy it’s difficult to find Chambord, produced in the neighbouring France), as most ingredients were locally sourced, and very few brands were able to reach all the continents. Nowadays though, as Stewart Putney of Putney Farm says in this month MxMo announcement, bar shelves are stocked with bottles from all over the world, most bartenders are familiar with more exotic techniques and even in my small town I can find a decent Asian grocery store. “Intercontinental” is the theme that Stewart decided for us, and it couldn’t be a better one, celebrating the globalization of the cocktail scene, and at the same time bringing us back into an era when travelling was an important event, not something casual, but something to remember and share with your loved ones.